The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

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Working as a guard at the Museum of Modern Art in the 1950s, Robert Ryman passed his time studying the paintings of colorists such as Henri Matisse. Their work inspired him to become an artist himself. Ever since, nearly every painting he's exhibited has been solid white.

Or so it appears at first glance. A closer look at his work – a selection of which is now on view at Dia:Chelsea – reveals that Ryman is a colorist. In fact, he's one of the best.

Ryman's early paintings often began with bold colors slathered on canvas or paper. These colors were then covered in white – a process he called "painting out the painting" – leaving only traces of pigment intensified by their scarcity. Later works have experimented with the way that light interacts with white pigment spread on supports ranging from aluminum to fiberglass. The physical characteristics of the achromatic surface draw out color qualities of the light source that would otherwise go unnoticed.

The fact that Ryman's paintings only reveal themselves under close observation is sometimes seen as a critique of instant gratification, as if Ryman were an abstemious ascetic shaking his paintbrush at modern society. In truth, his paintings are as visually luxuriant as Matisse's. They're not admonitions to slow down; they're enticements.